Saturday, October 31, 2009

Verrrrrrry Scarrrrrry....

Did I scare you? BWAH-Ha-Ha-HA!!! It's Halloween! Tonight is Trick or Treat! Tomorrow, All Soul's Day...Are you ready?

Oh, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Grins.

All of you know, by now that I ADORE Halloween. Almost every year we have an annual Addams Family Halloween party - in hiatus this year because I was on deadline, alas.

*huge, long-standing pout*

However, it is an event like no other. We've had up to 65 people in our house and garden for this affair. One year, early on while it was still just "Jeanne's Annual Halloween Party" (i.e. Pre-DH) I did a scary movie fest.

That was a strange one - not that they all don't have their strange character! - but this one struck me as odd because half the group was in the family room of my then-condo watching the scary movies, devouring popcorn, beer, and cupcakes with the same abandon as the monster on the screen devoured people.

The other half were in my miniscule kitchen talking as loudly as they could so as not to hear the scary noises or gasps of the populace from the TV screen.

Hmmm. I drew a frightening conclusion. Some people are really frightened by scary movies! Imagine that!

Did I mention that I'm REALLY missing the party this year? Can you tell? So I thought we could have a Virtual Halloween Party here.

Let's talk about Scary Movies! And Scary Books, Shaaaaall we?

The scariest movie I ever saw (nightmare producing scare and I was an adult!) was Aliens II. The one on the ship. *shudder* Something about that one just gave me the flat out willies. I literally did have fall out of the bed nightmares after that one. Could'a been the cold medicine too, but jumpin' heebie jeebies, Batman! That one was a doozy.

Second to that one in the "gives Jeanne the collywobbles" category is American Werewolf in London. Now before you go all Hollywood Critique on me and tell me it's a parody, I'll say that yes, I do know that. Doesn't matter. That scene, where the werewolves are dressed as Nazis and bust in the house? Huh-uh, oh no you dinnna!?! I truly did walk out of the theater. Well, run on wobbly legs might be a more writerly description. Ha!Others that were on the "Sleep Disturbing" list are : Jagged Edge; Body Heat; and Wait Until Dark.

Alien (the first one) didn't get me. The Halloween movies didn't bother me. Neither did any of the Elm Street movies. Frankly if you are boneheaded flat out stupid peabrained enough to get yourself IN to that situation? Damn if you don't deserve to get dead. Snork!! And hey, Jamie Lee Curtis? If you go in the house to get something, come back out and the car doors are locked and the windows fogged?

What really seems to get me are not the slasher/gore movies. No, it's the pscyological ones. Hitchcock. The Birds.

I still have an unnatural fear of things that flap.

Gaslight. Are you mad, or are you being "gaslighted?" Grins.

Then there's the books and movies-from-books like The Exorcist and The Omen and Rosemary's Baby. Oh, and all the Anne Rice books.

Ohhhh yeah. Scarwy.

So I knew what scared me. I figured I'd ask some of the Banditas.

For Suz, it's the old school thriller - Rear Window; Midnight Lace; Charade; and the aforementioned Gaslight.

For our own AC, The Talented Mr. Ripley made her shiver, along with the end of the world flick 28 Days.

Nancy says Wait Until Dark had her covering her eyes. She also cited Dead Again and Terminator as among the collywobble films. (Now, with passing time, she's decided Michael Beign made all the Terminator fear worth it.)

Joan, despite her love of blood thirsty Romans, assures me she does NOT watch scary movies. Of course, she went on to list three....Exorcist (the mere discussion of it had her worried); Jurrassic Park (especially the part with the raptors in the kitchen...but you know, she doesn't watch scary movies); and What Lies Beneath. I'm sure she saw this for Harrison Ford, never THINKING it was a scary movie. Right JT? Grins.

Our own Anna says the first Halloween scared her to death, along with The Shining. "Daddy's home!" *shudder!* Anna likes thrillers. Movies like Fatal Attraction, Dressed to Kill, Sleeping with the Enemy, Seven, The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Suspect. Suspect's one of my favorites, but Anna says Notorious is one of the best.

Tawny too refuses to see the scary ones, but says her kids think the REAL scary movies are: Dead Alive, Sixth Sense, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Quarantine, The Grudge and the Evil Dead.

So what about you? What's YOUR scary movie?

Any of them give you nightmares?

Do you get more frightened by the psychological stuff - Jagged Edge, Mr. Ripley, Gaslight, and so on - or the blood guts and gore, like Saw, and Halloween and Elm Street?

128 comments:

The scariest movie I ever saw was AMITYVILLE HORROR. I never went to that kind of a movie again. I was 15 at the time, so I've really stuck to my guns when it comes to avoiding horror films.

The last movie that gave me nightmares was (don't laugh!) TRANSFORMERS. I dreamed there was an evil little car in my house. I knew it was evil because it's headlights glowed red. It was toy-sized, but it still scared me. I thought I'd gotten rid of it; then the doorbell rang. I answered the door and there it was -- and it was the size of a normal car. That may not sound scary, but it was, I swear! My son finds it hilarious. He thinks that an evil car would have just plowed through the door and not run the bell.

Well he will be having a quiet night tonight there will be no trick or treating here

Jeanne great post the scarriest movie I ever saw was The Exorcist I had nightmares for days after but I don't usually watch scarry movies I am a big scardy cat LOL. When the I know What You Did Last summer movie came out and the one that followd my kids got me to watch them and I had my hands over my face often and the kids laughed their heads off at me and I must confess to watching The Scarry Movies with them as well and covering my face.When I was a young girl we used to have scarry movies every Friday night on the TV and some of them were scarry does anyone remember The Blob with Steve McQueen and another one called The Crawling Hand don't remember who was in that one they had me scarred back then. Oh and The Day Of The Triffods.

I do hope you all have a happy Halloween and Jeanne sorry you aren't having a party this year but enjoy your night.

Oh, man, I'd forgotten about Amityville. That one was reaaaally scary. Of course, what lightened that one up for me was Eddie Murphy's comedy routine about the haunted house thing. Totally hysterical. I'll see if I can find it on YouTube and post it.

*muffled laugh* Yeah, the car thing. Seriously, though dreams can make everyday objects, much less sentient cars, incredibly frightning. Butcher knives, for instance...

Helen, it's just as well you don't have any Halloween candy and trick-or-treat going on. I shudder to think what that bird would get up to, especially after hanging out with P226!

I remember The Blob from late night TV and, of course, the dreaded green-spew-filled Exorcist.

Part of The Exorcist was filmed here in DC, in Georgetown. It's the part on the steps...the famous Exorcist steps. Ironically, it's next to a gas station and right at a major intersection, which you'd never know from the atmospheric movie.

I'm not into horror flicks or scary movies but I love a good suspense/thriller. One movie that creeped me out was "The Others" starring Nicole Kidman. Ugh...pics of the dead servants...sheesh! Another creepy flick is an oldie..."The Innocents" starring Deborah Kerr. I was a kid when I saw it on TV and it freaked me out. Scary books don't bother me.

Jeanne--I started to say "what gorgeous pictures" and then got to the scary ones! *g* What a fun blog.

Psychological bits scare me more--harder to forget. And I just close my eyes on gore, so I don't see most of it.

Yeah, I'm never watching Wait Until Dark again. Terminator is scary, but mostly from tension and danger. Dead Again with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh was really good, too--reincarnation thriller with a twist.

Movies don't usually give me nightmares. And I try, to be honest, to avoid reading books I think might. Life's too short, and there are too many other books.

Happy Halloween! And Samhain!

Helen, have fun with the rooster. Don't let him eat too many Tim Tams.

We don't watch the horror movies any more it seems like if you have seen one you have seen them all. We loved the Alien movies though, hubby's favorite was the first one. I can't remember a movie that made me have nightmares, I guess I just don't scare easy.

I guess I will be giving out lots of treats later on, if we don't have a rain out.

Hi Virginia! We're actively praying for NO RAIN here tomorrow for several reasons: football game for the older son, championship baseball game for the older son (back to back) and Trick or Treat for both boys.

GOT to have Trick or Treat!!! :>

In a lot of ways, I don't scare easily either, but some of those psychological thrillers stay with me...

Hey, Helen, a day with the rooster! Perhaps you can keep him entertained by reading aloud to him ;-)

Hey, Pamela! How are you? Great to see you here.

Jeanne, what a great post. Actually I'm not a great connoisseur of scary movies - I'm much more into mushy ones ;-) I've got the Exorcist in the cupboard but I've never been game to watch it.

I remember the Shining seriously creeping me out. REDRUM!!!!! And the hedges at the end. Yeah, they were both pretty scary. As was Jack Nicholson doing Here's Johnny!!!! He's not an actor I've ever particularly admired - yeah, I know, I'm a party of one there. But as the mad writer stuck in that hotel for the winter? He was just right. And wasn't that hotel creepy????

I remember when I was a teenager I watched the original version of The Haunting with Julie Harris and how that scared the willies out of me. Not sure what I'd think now - I'm probably a little more hardened. I remember watching the remake and going meh.

I'm not into scary movies but Scariest Movie Ever? I only caught the last couple of minutes of the movie while channel surfing but it is still The Scariest Movie I Have Ever Seen and I have no intention of ever watching any more of it or its sequels. That movie is Cube. Oh...my...gosh, I was so stressed and freaked out for those few minutes but I couldn't look away and I had to consciously unknot every muscle after it ended. *SHUDDER*

Aside from a book I didn't finish as a kid that involved a little girl who moved into an old Victorian house, an old dollhouse and the ghost of a very persuasive dead girl whose bedroom that girl now occupies, I can't think of any other scary books I've read. I have a very vivid imagination so scary books are not my cup of tea. Back in grade school, a teacher once read us The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. I was entirely creeped out by it.

I love scary movies, love to be startled and jump out of my seat in the theatre, have even been known to scream aloud. Embarrassing, but usually I've been joined by my two daughters flanking me on either side.

I enjoy the psychological ones more, just for the sheer intellectual thrill. But I'm not above watching the cheesy, creepy crawlie ones either.

You've named many of my favs, but I have to say that WAIT UNTIL DARK has a special place in my psyche. To be blind and stalked?? And Alan Arkin was absolutely chilling in that.

Happy Halloween. Pinhead from "Hellraiser" still scares me. I love "Gaslight." It was on TCM last night. Charles Boyer was a creepy dude trying to make Ingrid Bergman insane. I'm a big fan of Heather Graham's ghost stories.

Okay, I hate it but I am going to admit to my total wimpdom here and just say it straight out, I don't do scary. I have a vivid imagination and can't even read scary books. Movies are totally out of the question, Jurassic Park with all those things jumping out of no where? Huh uh, can't handle it I will just go to bed now thanks. To me the scariest of all are the ones that could be possible, real life is pretty darn scary if you ask me.I have a sleep disorder so just on a normal night if I get an actual 3 hours sleep it is a cause for celebration so the only thing I read before sleep is a nice calm historical (and yes, I am not lying, I have been "startled" by some things even in those) romance. If I am particularly jumpy for some reason I have to go with Mary Balogh or someone I know is not going to have a villian that is going to give me nightmares.I am a wimp I tell you, don't know how this happened because as a youngster I had no fear.

Great post, Jeanne! I'm not a big fan of horror movies, but I do like suspense/thriller: What Lies Beneath, The Others, The Sixth Sense. Although, I prefer to watch them during the day with someone else in the room with me. :-D

Hands down, the scariest movie I ever saw was The Exorcist! I can't even listen to the music without covering my ears.

As far as scary books, I remember reading Anne Rice's THE WITCHING HOUR years ago. I was reading in bed, and it was a really scary, hanging-on-the-edge-of-your-seat moment, and my husband comes in the bedroom. I screamed and threw the book in the air (it was a HUGE hardback, just so you get the picture), and my dh looked at me like I had lost my mind. ;)

Despite my dislike for horror movies, I love to watch Ghost Hunters and any other paranormal show on the tube. I guess I have some sort of perverse fascination with things that go bump in the night.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Helen, keep those Tim Tams away from the GR....and send them to me. LOL

Jeanne, I'm afraid I would be one of those people in your kitchen talking as loudly as possible to drown out the sound of horror! I just can't wait horror movies. I'm too scared! LOL! I think I have only seen one horro movie at the theatre, and that was Nightmare on Elm Street. I went with a group of friends and was freaked out all the way home and well into the next week!!

Hi Jeanne - HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone. This is one of my favorite holidays - not because of all the scary stuff - but rather the candy (yum!) and costumes. I'm more of a Casper the Friendly Ghost type person than a scarey movie one. I would have been in the kitchen at your party because I'm not drawn into the scary movies. If you don't invest in the world,the scares don't pack as much punch.

Scarey books - those I can relate to. I read Dean Koontz and I'm checking the locks on the doors and windows. Scarey, scarey stuff and I have to keep turning the page to see what comes next.

Tonight, the dh and I are celebrating by going to Young Frankenstein - the musical. Can't wait.

I'm a real 'fraidy-cat when it comes to scary movies & books. I have too hard of a time separating reality from fantasy, I guess!

I remember reading Amityville Horror in my teens and being especially wary of red-eyed pigs and closets from that point on!

The scariest movies to me are the "chase" ones. I can deal with the blood and gore, but I don't like being snuck up on! The Shining, even the edited for-tv one, made me scared for weeks! That ax alone was too much for me! 13 Ghosts, the original and the remake, but especially the "naked chick" in the newer version ....*shiver*!But the scariest for me is The Grudge. Not seeing the girl's face, just hearing the noise...AAAHH! I think the paranormal intrusion on the everyday is what gets me about that movie. Never being safe from the curse and all that popping out on the screen just seals the deal for me.Now that I have a toddler at least I have an excuse not to have scary movies on in the house today! Thank goodness! :)

Helen, who's that kid dressed up like a rooster trick or treating with you?

Gannon, during What Lies Beneath? When the wife who is lying in a tub paralyzed waiting for the water to rise and drown her? And Harrison turns to see the corpse face superimposed over Michelles?

Startled me so bad I yelled "Jesus Christ" out loud in the theatre.

THAT startled my friends whose popcorn went airborne.

The Sixth Sense was CREEPY (Yes, Jeanne...that's another scary movie I "didn't" watch) What got to me was the images of people who had unjustly been tortured/executed wandering the halls of that school.

THAT is horrific to me...thinking about what a person must be feeling WAITING to be executed ESPECIALLY if they are innocent!

I'm honestly not into scary movies or books. I don't know why but they just don't do anything for me.

I will tell you about the scariest TV show. One episode of Ghost Hunters really did me in, and I watch the show every week. This episode was a home in SC that had orginally kept slaves. One of the slaves had been raped in the carriage house. When they did an EVP sessions in the carriage house you could clearly hear a woman screaming. It was extremely clear. I could barely sleep that night.

Hey Pissenlit! Happy Halloween! Have you let Susan's villain loose yet? Or did you decide to keep him. Grins.

I'm very visual too. There are a lot of movies I just won't see. The Last Temptation of Christ, for instance. I figured I knew how that story ended (badly) and w/ today's movie making ability to make it all real? Nope, no thanks. It's pretty real to me already and I'd rather not have that visual in my head! :>

Ohh, forgot to say that Tell-Tale Heart's one of my favorite Poe stories for sheer, short scare. :>

I got to be the keynoter at a neighboring community's arts council program the other night. It was a Poe-fest and the group did quickfire writing contests in the style of Poe which I got to judge. Then, a gentleman read TellTale Heart.

Ooooh, I ADORE Young Frankenstein. There's a program on Bravo or A&E about behind the scenes at the movie. They did one on YOung Frankenstein and my DH and I nearly fell off the couch laughing. Some of the outtakes, some of the problems (cast cracking each other up) and so on were just as funny as the movie. Sometimes those exposes take all the fun out of the movie, but not this one, it just enhanced it.

Hey Dianna! Happy Halloween! I think if you can't sleep, anything disturbing is your "enemy" - I LOVE to sleep. The few times in my life I've not been able to? Now THAT's scary! I don't know how you get so much accomplished and do what you do on 3-4 hours a night. Yikes.

Hey Gannon! Happy Halloween! I think all the horror movie things are that perverse fascination with the things that go bump. Grins.

Had to LOL WITH you on The Witching Hour. If anyone can give you atmospheric, spooky and down right skin-crawly, Anne Rice is your girl. After all the LeStat books, I wanted to take a shower (New Orleans' heat and humidity described so well) and turn on all the lights.

Oh, and Buffie? You have a point about the scary movie trailers. I don't mind them so much for myself - hey, that's what the remote is for! - but that they show them when my kids can see them.

Of course, I feel the same way about the ads for erectile dysfunction during baseball and football games. My nine year old doesn't really need to be thinking about erections, much less what happens when you can't get one. *rolls eyes, scornfully shoots a murderous glance at the ad agencies*

I "accidently" channel surfed that show up one night at midnight (What was I thinking stopping there?)THAT episode was scary....hearing "things"

But 2 years ago, they came to an old TB sanitarium actually located only about 5 miles from my house. It's a BEAUTIFUL turn of the century castle like place that they housed TB patients in back in the day when "rest for years" was recommended. They did a "live" broadcast on Halloween night.

They had a chute from the hill down to the railroad where the deceased were sent.

These two investigators kids were walking through it and they said (in a horrified whisper) "Do you smell that? It smells musty and moldy"

Um..yeah, the chute is about 80 years old and not been open.

Then there was a loud piercing whistle. Another investigator said "What was that?"

Um, the train on the track less than a mile down.

(rolls eyes)

I started to email them to say "Unless you hear a cough, there aren't any ghosts there"

But it could be scary...esp. for the few years in the 70's when it was a nursing home!!!

I would have to say the movie that scared me, and really did give me nightmares was a movie I saw in the 1980's, 'The Howling', when they changed into the werewolf, I had never seen anything like that before, this was not your cute, furry, Lon Chaney Jr. Wolfman, this was flat out horror.

Now a romantic/horror film I like is Coppola's 1993 Dracula, watch that every Halloween! And get my romance injection along with the horror!

The book? I would have to say 'Salem's Lot' by Stephen King.

There you have it, werewolves and vampires, LOL!The stuff of my nightmares, and my fantasies!~Boo

Jeanne and Jo both mentioned Wait Until Dark. The first time I saw that, I was in high school, sitting next to a football player. There's one particular moment in the movie, near the end that, well, had him practically over the back of his seat. The only thing that kept me from being right there with him is that the music had warned me, so I'd shut my eyes.

Because I can't shrug off scary stuff--maybe I have a superstitious streak--I tend to avoid it instead.

Nancy said: had him practically over the back of his seat. The only thing that kept me from being right there with him is that the music had warned me, so I'd shut my eyes.

He must not have been that cute if you missed the opportunity to be behind the seat with him. Grins. I have to say I'm alays glad of the musical cues. I know when to shut my eyes. Ha!

I explained this to my 4 year old. That movies made the music to fit the movie and many times there were cue. I figured it would go riiiiight over his head. Yeah, right. The other day he was humming the Star Wars theme. Part of it, anyway. I da-da-da-ahd another part and he gave me this annoyed look and said, "NO, Mama, that's Darth Vader's theme. I'm playing with Yoda. This is his theme...."

I forgot about that ending in the 'Howling', I think on the DVD commentary they said it was a nod to the "Wolfman', but you are right, it kind of took the punch out of it, LOL! You wanted to go get her a chew toy and some puppy chow she was so darned cute.

Oh, I can't forget Frankenstein! I saw a TV movie version on the Hallmark Channel (!) a few years back that was pretty good, Donald Sutherland was in it, the creature was played to tortured perfection by Luke Goss. It followed the book rather closely. Horror and heartbreak!

Oh, I think I've read and seen them all - love all scary stuff. The Exorcist was probably one of my first scariest books. I remember reading until 4 in the morning and had to get up for work at 5 so didn't even bother sleeping lol. Stephen King is my favorite author lol. I even watch the bad and goofy ones - they're always good for a laugh if they don't scare me.

Drew said: LOL! You wanted to go get her a chew toy and some puppy chow she was so darned cute.

Exactly!

And we were mentioning musical cues a few posts up. I remember this scary, dramatic "its the end!" music and this cutsey werewolf. Part of it too, was the contrast. The other werewolves were these gnarly, snarly slavering beasts - even the really cute guys - and here she is, bimbo werewolf. Snork.

Catslady, I remember reading the Exorcist and being scared and intrigued and weirded-out. Ha! PRetty much in that order. That's the only book my parents ever tried to censor, but I ended up reading it anyway.

I remember the censorship arguement well. When you're a librarian (my dad) and you've preached freedom of the press a whole heck of a lot to your kids, it's kinda hard to cry "CENSOR!" on any book. So I got away with it because I threw all those speeches right back at him. Ha!

The first horror movie I ever saw was Hitchcock's The Birds... when I was 6 years old. Haha! Loved every second of it.

As for favorite horror movies, I don't even know where to begin! The Hellraiser series, Wrong Turn, Nightmare On Elm Street... At the top of the list are most definitely The Ring and the Final Destination movies. I love me some gore, but the movie is 10 times better when there are plot twists thrown into the mix to spice things up :)

Jeanne, you NEED to see the Saw movies! They're graphic, yes, but the plot is soooo diabolical. Really messes with your head. MWAHAHAHA!

The psychological thrillers are the ones that get to me the most, probably because I know, or believe, that the same stuff going on in the movie could happen to me. I spend a lot of time looking over my shoulder while watching those. I saw Wait Until Dark in the theater and it scared the beejeezus out of me!

Most people today would probably laugh at Night of the Living Dead but the first time I saw it was at a drive-in theater when I was 16. For months (okay, okay...years) after that I was terrified to drive past a cemetery alone at night. I had never realized how many cemeteries we had in and around my little town until I saw that movie. lol

Jeanne, I thought of one scary movie that I was able to watch and that was Silence of the Lambs. Brilliantly written but creeeeeepy!

I loved Sixth Sense, but I guessed the key plot point early. Must be my sixth sense. LOL!

Another really goosebump-raising film that's also very good is The Gift with Cate Blanchet (however you spell her name). Raised every hair on my body, but it wasn't the kind of spooky movie that ruins my sleep.

Did y'all know that The Shining was set not far up the road from me in Estes Park in the Stanley Hotel? Stephen King is a Colorado boy and wrote it there or was inspired to write it there. I've never seen the film. Won't watch it. Heck, I haven't even seen Jaws.

The movies that stuck with me as badly scaring me are ones I saw when I was a child or a teen-ager. Something about age and wisdom (cough-cough) have made me much more difficult to scare these days.

My older sister had to leave a screening of "Night of the Living Dead," because she'd had the misfortune to let me tag along and I didn't last long past the scene in the cemetery where the soon-to-become-a-zombie himself is teasing his sister with, "They're coming to get you, Barbara!" By the time the first passing ghoul actually made a grab for the girl, I was ready to wet my pants.

A second movie that made an impression on me was a little known movie by Italian director Dario Argento called "Suspiria." It just had an overwhelming feeling of doom and used gross images in a weird subtext that was unnerving.

The original version of Friday the 13th really unsettled me, too, because of the very graphic bloodshed and the fact that even characters I found sympathetic were suddenly meeting grisly ends.

In books, not much scares me because I seem to process the written word differently than I do visual images. I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and I enjoy other horror writers as well. Two books in the horror genre that have stuck with me and still bother me are The Doll Who Ate His Mother, a truly creepy grotesque novel by horror master Ramsey Campbell, and The Other by Thomas Tryon.

On my first trip to Ireland, we were staying at a rather isolated B&B right on the Atlantic coast at Castlegregory. There were only two options for dinner...a pub to the right or a "old hotel" to the left.

We'd been eating pub food, so thought let's give the hotel a try.

It was like Victorian era, set OFF the road in the midst of some WOODS.

There were cars around and in the distance was another old stone house...with single shoes TACKED onto the side of it...all over the wall up toward the roof even.

Weird.

Went into the hotel. NOBODY at the desk. We waited...and waited. We peeked inside the dining room which was set with all sorts of silver and china and period furnishings.

NOBODY there.

We heard noises in the kitchen. I tiptoed back and peeked in the door calling "Hello?"

NOBODY answered but the noise of cooking continued. NOBODY was cooking that I could see.

Mary and Lauren started saying "redrum"

I had not seen The Shining (because, yanno...I don't WATCH scary movies ;-) but I didn't like the sound of that in that setting.

We hauled a** out of there. Later we decided those single shoes? Were from previous victims...er, I mean visitors.

You can just imagine the atmosphere being there in the forest of Ireland.

Once there was this girl who had a best friend who loved scary movies. Every Friday night in their town the local television station showed old-time B horror movies with Bella Lagosi and Boris Karloff and Vincent Price.

At least once a month the two friends would spend Friday night together and the one friend would INSIST they watch the horror movies. Her friend would agree, but always ended up watching the movies from under the blankets with only one eye open.

Sigh...It's a wonder Marion and I stayed friends for so long...the woman loved horror movies!

Ah, Halloween. It has always been my favorite Holiday. Yet another evil twin thing, Duchesse. And even so, I try not to watch scary movies because they stay with me. I pretty much just flat refuse. And actually...even in the ones I've seen, it's scary MOMENTS...not the whole film.

As to the classics...It's not blood and guts that gets me. It's the psychological warfare.

For books, The Hound of the Baskervilles was a winner. I still think about that hound when I go out at night in the dark. And I LIKE dogs. (nervous grin)

Hitchcock has not been outdone, in my opinion. The scene in Psycho leading up to the shower? Masterful.

I have not seen The Exorcist, though I did grow up in a church where they actually conducted exorcisms. So I dunno if that would scare me or not.

There are a few things I've seen which STILL give me the creeps, even years later.

Aliens. Yes, I was creeped out by that alien and her intelligence and her hunting of the heroine. And I still have ugly visions of the larval(?) stage which smacked onto the person's face to implant the baby into the host. AAAAAHHHHH!

I saw only the trailer for The Howling, and that was plenty. I still dream about it.

I have had at least one dream about that doll that comes to life. And no, I have not seen that film. I can't even remember the name of it.

Strangely enough, the things that seem to linger longest with me are things like The Diary of Anne Frank, The Hiding Place,by Corrie Ten Boom, which was a book that made the rounds in our church and community when I was WAY too young to be reading that stuff, Red Dawn, and any other book or film about persecution by a dark force. I don't know why. It's weird.

As to the typical Halloween flicks..I refuse to watch those. Yes, I am lame. But they live with me. I can't let go of them. Heck, War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise still bothers me. And it's only mildly scary. I think it's the part where they're harvesting humans and when they drop them out and spear them, then drain their blood and spray it around to feed the red weed....

Hey Lisa Marie! Happy Halloween! I know what you mean about getting sympathetic with the characters, then having them get picked off. I think that's part of the success of horror movies. You LIKE these people and if it can happen to THEM, then....

The first time (and the last time) I was terrified by something I read I was in high school. The book was The Power. I couldn't put it down, read it in the bathtub, and by the time I had finished it, the house was dark and quiet and I was dripping wet and had to get from the bathroom to my bedroom, all the while certain that the man with The Power was OUT THERE.

This was purely psychological stuff. Something about controlling objects and people's minds, making them do things they wouldn't ever do. Yikes! Total loss of control? That's the scariest concept ever!

I can read anything now and not be scared. Grossed out--yes. Just not scared.

Jeanne, no, I haven't seen the 2nd "new" Batman movie. The boy assured me it was too creepy for me, and the snippets I've seen on HBO lead me to think Heath Ledger did a brilliant job as a deranged maniac. But too creepy for me.

I like ghost stories so the scariest movie in that genre for me when I was a kid was an old movie called "The Uninvited" with Ray Milland filmed in the 40s. The ghost story that scared me as an adult was "The Ring". That one really creeped me out.

Wishing all the Adams family a happy spooky Saturday with tons of treats...Love,Max

Nancy, I should look for The Power online (wish I could remember the author); I wonder if it would scare me now? I sort of think I'd find it slow. The pacing of novels (and movies) has really changed in the last ten years or so. I watched all 4 Alien movies in the past week and the first ones move more slowly than they would if made today, imo. Did anyone see Aliens vs. Predators? I loved it. Fast-paced! I thought it would be dreck, but I really liked the plot.

TICD said: pacing of novels (and movies) has really changed in the last ten years or so.

This is SO true! I know some of the stuff I've seen again - some of the really old stuff - seems soooo sloooowwwwww. :> Some of the books too. I gave a talk the other night at a Poe Night and the discussion turned to the fact that books like Tolkien and War and Peace probably wouldn't be bought nowadays. They're just toooo slowww. :>

Late to the late night party! Had to work today. Talk about a horror show! Making cupcakes for sugar crazed people at Wal-Mart? SHUDDER! Our Monster Mash 12 inch cookie was a hit. Decorated like a pizza with eyeballs, worms and entrails for toppings. We couldn't make them fast enough and it was our own design!

My oldest younger brother, his best friend and I went to see The Exorcist when I was in college and they were in high school. We slept in the den that night with the lights on at THEIR request and they were big football players! SNORK! They said I knew more Bible than they did. I told them if a demon showed up I was going to be quoting the Bible from six blocks away. Good luck!

Amityville Horror was another one that gave me nightmares.

Stephen King's Pet Cemetery is the novel that had me sleeping with the lights on. The DH and I were just married and had a big dog, but no cat. I didn't get a pet cat until a few years after I lost the DH and I blame Stephen King. Of course the cats I have don't really count. I call them breathing stuffed fur pillows with feet.

I LOVE Gaslight and The Birds - those are two of my favorites. What was the one with Doris Day and Rex Harrison? It was a thriller set in London where he was "gaslighting" his wife. So sad, I asked my co-workers one day if they were "gaslighting" me and they had NO clue what I was talking about.

Having worked in a funeral home, on the night shift for the most part, with some real jokers it is hard to scare me. God knows they tried. But after that first corpse sits up on you, it is pretty much passe.

The Hellraiser movies horrified me. But the Evil Dead movies can scare the crap out of you.

I remember The Haunting with Julia Harris and as I recall it kept me up several nights.

It's funny but the paranormal or spirit type events don't scare me that much. I've spent so much time studying them and I feel like I know what to do and what not to do should something come up.

The truly scary movies and books and occurrences for me are the ones that involve serial killers and psychos. There are no formulas or rituals or words to deal with them.

Jeanne, I really despise rape scenes. It's the one thing I CANNOT watch. I can't stand when men take advantage of women. It infuriates me. Didn't like the rape scene in The Hills Have Eyes either. Bleh.

One of the scariest movies ever for me was an old John Payne (the P iscorrect) film from the '50s. It hadundersea scenes with him being setupon by a huge, ugly octopus! Thatdid it for me, I had nightmares forages after! I still can't watch movies that have underwater scenesin them to this day!

Having said that, I do LOVE all the great news going on with all of you that Jeanne keeps me posted on and since today is her deadline day, I am quite certain more great news is on its way! Thanks for all your fabulous work and enjoy your November!!

PS I did have a recurring nightmare as a child that the jack-o-lantern my parents always put in the front bedroom window on Halloween came to life and "Pumpkinhead" was my haunting monster for years. Does that count?!

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Donna MacMeans, Trish Milburn, and Nancy Northcott will all be in Atlanta for the Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Decatur, Georgia September 30 through October 2nd. If you're in the area, stop by for the booksigning. We'd love to see you.

Redeeming the Rogue by Donna MacMeans received a 4.5 star TOP PICK! review from Romantic Times Magazine.

Living in Color by Trish Milburn is now available on Kindle, Smashwords and at barnesandnoble.com for the Nook.